Sometimes I love amazon

The battery on the xb went dead today, it's an optima red top that's about 8 years old and it survived about 4 recharges 2 summers ago when dealing with a fried alternator and then having to be jumped 2-3 times in the past 12 months courtesy of my lack of driving. I'd been getting a few clicks, no crank, then a crank and fire over the past 2 weeks. Today it finally said no mas.

I was expecting to go with a cheapie off brand, duralast duracell or die hard, all were in the 125 range and had core charges on top of that. Then I decided to check amazon. Another optima red top agm for 149 that'll be here Thursday. Done. I'll try the hot start charge trick with the dead one to get it up to 10.5v then traditionally charge it, if it takes one it'll end up in the battery box in the hatch of the mazda. If it doesn't it served it's purpose.

I almost always love Amazon until my box pile gets too big. I have to drop them off at the recycling place (at least the boxes that won't fit in my bin). We buy nearly everything through Amazon. I am job security for the UPS guy.

I hope your new optima is as good as the old one. I know the quality has dropped

In reply to T.J.:

Sounds like my girlfriend's BIL. On our one week vacation at the beach last month, I think UPS made no less than 3 deliveries for him lol.

mad_machine wrote: I hope your new optima is as good as the old one. I know the quality has dropped

That was years ago. They have been back on the high quality bandwagon for at least 5 years now.

I pre-ordered a video game (No Man's Sky) only because my Prime subscription gave me $12 off the list price and free delivery on the release day.

I also delayed shipment of an order once just to get $5 on their new Prime Pantry store. So I shipped my wife some office snack type food to her work.

mad_machine wrote: I hope your new optima is as good as the old one. I know the quality has dropped

I've heard that, too. It has prevented me from buying one so far.

Anyhow, my name is Tom and I'm an Amazon Addict. Car parts? Check. Electronics? You bet. Toothbrushes? Why not? Jeff Bezos loves people like me.

I got really excited after seeing this, so I headed to amazon, eagerly searched for Optimas, only to realize that they don't make a battery for my Mercedes. So it goes.

Amazon is pretty amazing. Just wish their fulfillment costs didn't cost a full $5B more than the revenues from fulfilled merchandise.

Javelin wrote:

mad_machine wrote: I hope your new optima is as good as the old one. I know the quality has dropped

That was years ago. They have been back on the high quality bandwagon for at least 5 years now.

Really? I've yet to see that reflected in comments about them online. Did they pull back their manufacturing from Mexico or something? If I'm convinced they are as good as they used to be I'd buy a couple in a heartbeat. Otherwise, I'm staying away.

In reply to Fueled by Caffeine:

I like them as a customer, but wouldn't want anything to do with being a stockholder.

Basil Exposition wrote:

Javelin wrote:

mad_machine wrote: I hope your new optima is as good as the old one. I know the quality has dropped

That was years ago. They have been back on the high quality bandwagon for at least 5 years now.

Really? I've yet to see that reflected in comments about them online. Did they pull back their manufacturing from Mexico or something? If I'm convinced they are as good as they used to be I'd buy a couple in a heartbeat. Otherwise, I'm staying away.

Johnson Controls moved all Optima production from the US to Mexico in late 2008 and the battery quality went to crap. They did a major re-tooling and QC upgrade to the Mexico plant in late 2012. Our defect rate on Optimas from 09-12 was awful (40% IIRC), and it's been about 4-5% since mid-13.

I usually love Amazon. I make my wife check customer reviews of whatever latest greatest gadget she thinks she needs before buying it, even if she's buying it somewhere else.

Soon I might like them less though, I'm having a dispute with a third party seller. So far they aren't being helpful, but it is early in the process.

I bought a replacement pitbike carburetor, one that I've purchased previously, it's a knockoff of a keihin. Last time it was made in Japan, shipped from the US, and very high quality. This time, from the exact same listing, it's Chinese, shipped from China, the wrong size, and junk quality.

I wonder if the third party seller drop shipped from a different supplier, or if a different third party bought out the original seller.

I look it at like this, a cap battery was going to cost 109 and I was going to need to drive there, then drive back to return the core (otherwise it would be 139, and I really wanted to keep said core to see if I could parallel charge to 10.5v then charge the old one for use in the Mazda project which is in need of a battery. The Mazda was going to get a cheapie of it's own that would run 90 before core, and I don't have a core as a former shop coworker turned in the good battery as a core (why would a core be on the charger, charging). And the optima being agm allows be to relocate the battery into the hatch easily as no venting is required from the battery box. The $10 opportunity cost is worth the price of admission and may save me from having to purchase a second battery

Javelin wrote:

Basil Exposition wrote:

Javelin wrote:

mad_machine wrote: I hope your new optima is as good as the old one. I know the quality has dropped

That was years ago. They have been back on the high quality bandwagon for at least 5 years now.

Really? I've yet to see that reflected in comments about them online. Did they pull back their manufacturing from Mexico or something? If I'm convinced they are as good as they used to be I'd buy a couple in a heartbeat. Otherwise, I'm staying away.

Johnson Controls moved all Optima production from the US to Mexico in late 2008 and the battery quality went to crap. They did a major re-tooling and QC upgrade to the Mexico plant in late 2012. Our defect rate on Optimas from 09-12 was awful (40% IIRC), and it's been about 4-5% since mid-13.

Rockin' good news! My "good" Optimas are going on 10 to 12 years old. I've got a "bad" one under the workbench that lasted just a couple.

BTW, if you want an AGM battery that's made in the USA, look at Exide.

In reply to Javelin:

I almost went that route, but the $60 savings got me

In reply to captdownshift:

Don't know what case size you were looking at, but Amazon carries all of the Exide Edge AGM's as well: Linky

Manufactured in Salina, KS.

I probably return half of what I buy off amazon, which is a lot. It's very convenient.

Joey

In reply to joey48442:

Really? Why?

Javelin wrote:

Basil Exposition wrote:

Javelin wrote:

mad_machine wrote: I hope your new optima is as good as the old one. I know the quality has dropped

That was years ago. They have been back on the high quality bandwagon for at least 5 years now.

Really? I've yet to see that reflected in comments about them online. Did they pull back their manufacturing from Mexico or something? If I'm convinced they are as good as they used to be I'd buy a couple in a heartbeat. Otherwise, I'm staying away.

Johnson Controls moved all Optima production from the US to Mexico in late 2008 and the battery quality went to crap. They did a major re-tooling and QC upgrade to the Mexico plant in late 2012. Our defect rate on Optimas from 09-12 was awful (40% IIRC), and it's been about 4-5% since mid-13.

Good to know. We got burned hard by the crap batteries - and mocked publicly by an Optima rep when I mentioned it. We dropped the brand like a hot potato and have been using Odysseys ever since.

In reply to Keith Tanner:

No problem with keeping them dropped. When my "good" US made one goes out, it will more than likely get replaced by an Exide. JCI's customer service is... lacking.